Arcane Sniper [Matan’s Shooter] - Chapter 1
Ch 1
The 6th Circle’s high-level magic exploded into the woods, the feet of the party that were moving in hiding were tied all at once..
“Kuaa, Heal, Heal.!”
“Don’t scream, hold on! You’re going to get caught when you’re running around!”
“Damn it! We’ll die and we haven’t even started!”
Five elite party members to capture the victory in the guild war.
Their sight within the magic range turned red in an instant.
There was no HP bars, but their field of view has turned red, so if it remains as it is, they will die soon.
“Ah, damn it!! Healer! Do something! Are we going to die like this?”
The little wizard behind them was already crawling on the ground. Five seconds before the wide-area magic disappeared, they will surely die.
“Please! Hurry up!”
At that moment, a sword fell from the sky.
It was the Saint’s Sword!
A majestic translucent sword emitting green light. And the voice from the inside was warm and refreshing.
“Come here quickly!”
“Oh, sister! Damn, please use it faster next time.”
“I’m sorry. Wide area healing takes a long time to cast……
“It’s alright, it’s alright. Since no one is dead. Anyway thank you.”
When a woman in a white veil got embarrassed, a man with a double sword struck clapped his hands.
“There’s nothing good about rushing your sister. Above all, it is encouraging that noone died.”
“We just need to get out of this forest and we can proceed. Then this war will be ours.”
“I don’t think it’s over.”
At the end of the duration of the magic, their anxiety grew as their health recovered to some extent.
“If we are their target, they would have already rushed at us. I think we only got caught by a magic that was cast randomly. We will continue the operation.” The man with the shield spoke confidently. It looked pretty good, but that’s all. There is no way they were seen when they themselves are on their way to exiting the forest.
“How’s your health?”
“We have recovered completely.”
“Let’s get going. We must catch up to our other guild members.”
The man with the shield clenched his teeth. They are the five elite members with important mission in the guild war. It’s not a big number, but it’s still good enough. Without them, the entire guild will be in a difficult position. In addition, he is the one who proposed this surprise attack. If they fail, how will he face their guild master? No, before that, they must succeed in order to repay the sacrifices of their other guild members.
“Then let’s go-ugh!”
Chwiik, the wizard holding an orb while trying to stand up flew backwards.
“Hmm?”
What? It’s a strange movement.
Slideback? Do wizards have a skill that allows them to slide backwards?
He did not jump. The body of the wizard, who flew back, laid on the floor as it was. The elite party members were confused and looked at each other.
“Hey, what are you doing? We have no time to play around.”
The head of the man approaching the wizard burst.
They did not understand the situation, but at least the visible evidence suggested danger.
A flowing blood, and a body that turned gray. They were in danger.
“What! Enemy?”
“Where? Sister! Try to detect it!”
“I can’t! The warlock and ranger have been hit… … . First, I’ll cast mass protection. Get behind m-”
The words got cut off. The white veil was stained with blood, and the whole body turned rigid, as if a huge tree fell, the woman’s body fell backwards.
But it is not dead people who felt fear, it was those who survived, that saw the corpse of their companions, who got terrified.
Where? How did they attack?
“Quickly get behind me! Watch out, there is something!!”
The man raised the shield. How hard is it to be a tanker? Even if you don’t understand what’s happening, your body needs reacts first.
At least, if you know the direction where the body fell, you can judge where the attack came from and react accordingly.
‘Did the attack the ones who can use detect or protection magic? Or did they aim for people with low health first?’
Holding a shield and looking ahead, nothing caught his eyes.
“C,captain! Sound! I heard a sound”, the man holding two swords rushed to team captain holding a shield.
“Sound?”
“Over there, in that direction.”
Kaang-!
Something hit the shield. Something came out from the back of the head of the man holding two swords.
His grotesque exploding head instantly turned to dust and disappeared.
“Euk.”
It was a scene that came from nightmares, but the party leader was not interested in the body that turned gray. Only after listening to the man holding two swords was the able to hear the sound.
Taaang——.
‘Gun?’
The marks on the shield and the sound. The party leader could not help but think.
“Nonsense.”
As soon as he raised his head, his vision went out.
At the edge of the forest, there were five corpses that had turned into dust.
From a shooting position!
“Fire!”
There is a person in a shooting range.
‘This is the beginning.’
The eyes of Leeha, focused on the target and flashed.
‘Next shot.’
Leeha barely hung the tip of his index finger on the trigger and adjusted his breathing.
“Huuu……
The quietness of this moment when you hold your breath, the taste of tension in your mouth. The tongue softly attached to the roof of the mouth and the hollow floor calms the mind.
The beat of the heart slowly rising.
Except for the navy divers, the soldier who holds the most breath is probably the sniper.
However, there is no time for other thoughts.
The tip of his finger is twitching
Taaang–!
After the bullet fired, the smell and the sound of the gunpowder, and the heavy recoil that shakes the whole body, awakening the brain cells.
‘I like this feeling.’
Leeha remembered his childhood memories.
There was nothing he hadn’t done because of his father, who wanted to give his son a lot of experience. When he was young he tried horseback riding, golf, piano, fishing, and spearheading, but what attracted him the most was shooting.
At first, he just enjoyed the tranquility and tension of the moment of concentration, and the pleasure that the fired shot was accurately hit the target.
Additionally, as the distance of the target increased and the difficulty of shooting increased, the pleasure increased. It’s even more fun when you use live ammunition.
‘The pistol was good, too. It’s small, but the feeling in my hands is really good. Ah! The bolt-action gun shot in the United States was also amazing.’
I was so absorbed that when I was in college I saved the money I earned from a part-time job to go to the US to shoot..
Would your friends tell you to stop?
“Hey man! You should go to the army!”
That was the correct answer.
In the Republic of Korea, where it is not possible to own firearms individually, there were not many paths for gun masters.
‘Now, now… … One last shot.’ Taaang一-!
All twenty shots were over. Leaving that excitement behind, Leeha set up a gun while ensuring that the safety of the gun is on.
Captain Jung Ilgon said as he descended the stairs
“Sergeant Ha, you crazy guy. Did you know that you got a full round of bullseye again?”
“Sergeant Ha Leeha! I knew it while shooting. It’s always in bullseye, but. Isn’t it more strange that it’s not bullseye?”
Looking at the humming Leeha, Captain Jung stuck his tongue out.
He was a noncommissioned officer and was included in the battalion sniper, and he had never missed a bullseye since then.
The reason why he recommended the non-commissioned officer was because of his ridiculous shooting skills. How many times have you missed so far? No, have you missed any?
At least, Captain Jung had never seen anything like that.
In fact, it is not unusual to shoot 20 out of 20 shots on a regular squad.
[Target Practice].
The target, which appears in a fixed manner, is a score that is often shown to even newly enlisted private soldiers.
But what about 200 shots and 200 shots?
What about 2,000 shots and 2,000 shots?
So these days, he shoots at 500m and 700m, but the same goes for that. Not even one shot missed.
At this point, it is not whether he is good at shooting or not. Isn’t it beyond the human category? I’m curious about that.
However, whether Captain Jung was surprised or not, Lee Ha only smiled lightly and did not respond very much.
It was only natural from his point of view.
From when he was a kid when he first held an air gun.
“Ah, really tired, tired..”
“Right. Thank you.”
“I’ll print out the results, so you can organize them with the ballistics result and write a report”
“Yes, captain.”
“Still, I’m glad to have you Leeha. Sooner or later, special soldiers, marines and snipers will be evaluated for their combat abilities.”
Captain Jung, whose walking out of the shooting range with Leeha, spoke
Leeha belongs to a league of his own.
The better performance and good skills Leeha performs, the brighter your position will be.
“I don’t know. There are guns and textbooks… … It’s a place that has been operating snipers for decades in the first place..”
“Hey, you might not know why, but you have to win unconditionally.”
“Sergeant Ha Leeha, I will do my best.!”
Two people giggling down the firing range to get their cartridges and extra ammunition, and the only soldier who were following them was a driver because it was a sniper’s shooting range.
“Should we go home and get a beer later?”
“I’ll go if you’re paying..”
“Hey, you get more pay than me! They didn’t even pay my overtime last month!”
“Hey, don’t you have a sergeant’s salary? Didn’t you get promoted this year?”
How many hundred times have you come to the shooting range? The two began to clean up, exchanging grievances with a flawless attitude. This was a very common appearance.
“Ho, really. If I do it a couple more times, I’ll be relieved. Oh right. You know you haven’t even put on a promotion jaw yet?”
“Oh, have you still forgotten that? Then, today I go-”
And accidents always pop up in everyday life..
Kwaaaaang—!
The bombardment thrown by Captain Jung was scared for the following to accept, and an explosion occurred.
“Kahak–！”
The flame was not big, but the pressure was strong..
After being pushed out, Captain Jung rolled over the ground, and Leeha got pushed back hit the old Jeep.
Leeha lost consciousness with a strong shock.
‘Is it a dream?’
I feel like my eyelids are stuck. What happened to me? But thoughts are cut off by pain. “Puhaak-. Gahaat.”
Pain that you can’t even scream properly, your diaphragm shrinks in pain, making it difficult to breathe.. No, it may be because of the tube inserted in the nose and mouth that is difficult to breathe.
Thanks to the machines that force the lungs to move, he couldn’t breathe. On the contrary, I felt like I was going to die from the pain of those machines.
‘W,what? Come on? Help me! Help me!’
I cannot speak.
Wouldn’t it be a struggle to move your nails? He thought he struggled tremendously, but his body lying on the bed is only calm.
Urine was flowing out of the tube connected to the pepper. I didn’t even feel it doing this.
I only knew when I saw a bucket next to my bed filled with yellow water.
‘What the hell is this? What happened??’
How much time has passed? What happened to your body? You cannot turn your head more than 10 degrees to either side.
It seemed that it would be quicker to wait for the reunification with North Korea to move his neck.
As if there was no such concept in the beginning of erecting the waist, the following will was not conveyed.
How much does your finger barely procrastinate? However, it is not the intended movement like when the trigger is pulled, but only wriggling when the force is given enough to shake the whole body.
‘My body… … Oh, the hospital? Operation?’
Only then came the memory of the accident.
Captain Jung threw a bullet, it was full of bullets that are for disposal, and he caught it.
What happened the moment he caught it?
‘It exploded.. Yeah, obviously… … it exploded’
What is the probability of such an accident occurring? Neither old black powder nor nitroglycerin, nor modern ammunition exploded with aging.
No, is it a bit unreasonable to say modern?
Since it was made in the 1990s, 40 years have already passed. But, that’s… … .
“M,Mom.”
Leeha forcefully opened his mouth..
However, the voice did not come out loud even though Lee Hwa squeezed the vocal cords like a mop.
Periodic and monotonous beeps fill the space in the machine that checks the heart rate and blood pressure.
‘Nonsense. Why is this happening to me.’
The bare eyelids became heavy again.
Regardless of the following mentality, his body was forcing him to sleep for recovery.
‘I don’t want to fall asleep-I just fell asleep in the intensive care unit.
I prayed and prayed, again and again that this is a dream, please be a dream, even before my consciousness left me.
(To be continued…)
TL’s notes:
나이수백 게임판타지 장편소설 – Lee Soobaek Game Fantasy Feature Story
Bolt action here.
Non-commissioned officers – explanation here.
Novel Raw here.
Manhwa Raw here.
Manhwa Translation here.
Please consider buying the translator a coffee here.
Fun fact:
The Korean name of the novel is 마탄의 사수, which is Matan’s Sasu or Matan’s shooter, and when trying to search it in google it will show Der Freischütz, which is German for “The Marksman”. Check it here. It seems the translation for Der Freischütz to Korean is “마탄의 사수”. And Lee Soobaek took an inspiration from Der Freischütz when writing 마탄의 사수. As he got the inspiration of the “7 magic bullets” from Der Freischütz. In the story there are 7 magic bullets, the 6 bullets will go wherever the marksman wants them to go, but the last bullet, the “7th bullet” belongs to the devil, when it is shot, it will go wherever the devil wants it to go. I just find it a fun fact. Get it?